First-half showing angers Wright

Former West Ham man Luis Boa Morte was denied a goal on debut for Chesterfield

Chesterfield caretaker manager Tommy Wright saluted Luis Boa Morte but slammed his team's first-half performance after Dagenham condemned them to their first home league defeat of the season.

The former Arsenal, West Ham and Fulham star was denied a goal on his debut by a brilliant save from Chris Lewington after Sam Williams scored either side of Jack Lester's equaliser to give Dagenham their first away win.

"Luis was excellent, I didn't plan to play him for 90 minutes but I couldn't really bring him off because he was that good," Wright said. "Our first-half performance wasn't good and I'll take some of the blame for that because I picked a system that would suit us but it just didn't work."

He added: "I thought the two veterans were excellent, Jack (Lester) was excellent in the second half and Luis had a great debut. But we needed other people around them to produce the goods in the first half and they didn't do that.

"The whole first half none of the players were on the front foot and we seemed to lack the urgency and desire and we have to look at that because it shouldn't happen. I was pleased with the response in the second half, I kicked a few backsides at half-time and told them they couldn't go out on the field and expect things to happen."

Dagenham assistant manager Terry Harris praised his team after they delivered what he described as their best away display of the campaign.

"I thought it was a fantastic performance," he said. "It's a difficult place to come to, they were unbeaten at home, and I think that was our best performance away from home. We knew we would come under pressure but I thought we were absolutely superb.

"They changed their formation to 4-4-2 and had some chances but I thought our goalkeeper was absolutely superb.

"I'm delighted for him because he took the mistakes he was making to heart and he's worked very hard in training and I'm glad he came out on top because he is a very good goalkeeper.

"I was also delighted for Sam and I thought that was his best performance to date. His hold up play and back to goal play was immense and he brought other people into play. But everyone from one to 11 has to work hard and I thought we did that, it was a first-class performance."